The Philosophy of Big Buck Hunting

How to take mature whitetail bucks under the toughest conditions: heavily hunted public and timber lease lands.

ThePhilosophyOfBigBuckHuntingCoverThere has been nothing new written about Whitetail deer hunting in the last ten years. The Philosophy of Big Buck Hunting is not a lengthy tell-all book on every facet of deer hunting. Rather, it is a concise compilation of the knowledge and tactics necessary to take pressured trophy bucks on public and timber lease lands. While writing The Philosophy of Big Buck Hunting, author Rick DeStefanis trimmed away all the unnecessary clutter and fluff that fills most deer hunting books to create a clear presentation and distillation of the things that really matter.

Experienced and novice hunters alike will find this book takes their whitetail deer hunting skills to new levels. So, get out of that shooting house, get away from that food plot, and go down into the woods. Walk the beaver dams through the swamps, thread the new growth of clear-cuts, learn what really matters and how to take big bucks consistently. Read The Philosophy of Big Buck Hunting and learn how to think like a big buck hunter.

Rick DeStefanis began hunting when he was nine years old with a 32 lb. Bear recurve and a handful of mismatched cedar arrows. He has well over fifty years of hunting experience, mostly on public and timber lease lands in northern Mississippi where he now lives. Although nearly sixty-five years old, Rick still hunts with bow, rifle, and camera, but admittedly shoots more with the camera nowadays. A few of his many deer and other wildlife photographs are featured on his photo page.

Paperback
available fromamazon
List Price: $12.95, 5.5″ x 8.5″ (13.97 x 21.59 cm)
Black & White on White paper 152 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1456306687 (CreateSpace-Assigned)
ISBN-10: 1456306685
BISAC: Sports & Recreation / Hunting

Some of Rick DeStefanis's Big Bucks Taken on Public Land

Some of Rick DeStefanis’s Big Bucks Taken on Public Land

Independent review by renowned Canadian hunter Othmar Vohringer:

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We all dream of hunting big bucks but some of us don’t know how to hunt old mossy horns while others, hunting on public land, believe that there are no big bucks where they hunt. Well, I’ve got good news for you.

Rick DeStefanis, a veteran public land big buck hunter of many years, is the author of a new book, The Philosophy of Big Buck Hunting.

After reading the book from cover to cover there was no doubt in my mind that this IS the book many hunters have been waiting for. The Philosophy of Big Buck Hunting is not your run of the mill book written by some celebrity hunter having the good fortune to hunt on managed land or go on guided trips to prime whitetail destinations. No, Rick does his whitetail deer hunting where ninety-five percent of all hunters hunt: on heavily pressured public land.

The wealth of knowledge Rick gathered in over fifty years of hunting pressured big bucks is represented in a book that is written in a language everyone can comprehend and without the usual hype common to other “big buck hunting books.”

The Philosophy of Big Buck Hunting contains 4 chapters, six key principles and over forty tips on hunting big bucks. It starts with the most important information every aspiring big buck hunter needs to know: “How a trophy whitetail hunter thinks.” If you want to hunt big bucks the road to success starts with you, not with what camouflage you wear, what scent you use or what rifle caliber you shoot. Trophy whitetail hunting is about a change in hunting philosophy and Rick does a great job of explaining what it takes to acquire the mindset of a trophy hunter.
(Review excerpt © Othmar Vohringer. Visit Vohringer’s blog to read the full review.)

Read More Reviews on Amazon

Taken on Corps of Engineer Public Hunting Land

Taken on Corps of Engineer Public Hunting Land

Whitetail Deer Hunting at its finest

Whitetail Deer Hunting at its finest

 

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You may also enjoy my other books below:

Melody Hill: A Vietnam War Novel

Gomorrah Principle: A Vietnam War Sniper Story

Raeford’s MVP: Military Fiction with a Love Story

Valley of the Purple Hearts: Book #4 of my Vietnam War Series

Tallahatchie: Southern Fiction and Dark Comedy

Rawlings, No Longer Young: A Western Historical Fiction Novel

Recent Posts

The Use of The S-Word

We had an event down here recently that made the news for four or five days running. Folks up North didn’t quite understand why we Southerners totally freaked out when it happened. No, I’m not talking about Robert E. Lee surrendering at Appomattox Courthouse. We’ve come to terms with that…such as it is. I’m talking about something else. It’s not easy to talk about because it’s considered a four-letter word down here.

I’m talking about a four-letter word, the occurrence of which is often accompanied by the use of another four-letter word. Yep, we did hear it a few times, frequently accompanied by the F-bomb. Understandably, both came primarily from our northern transplants—bless their hearts. I’ll explain.

Living in the “sunny” South can be a challenge for folks from up North—at least for the first year, two, or three, and yes, I heard a few of them combining the F-bomb with that other four-letter word more than once. You see, up North, the word—not the F-bomb word—but THAT other word—is one normally considered fit for common usage and is not necessarily considered vulgar. But you say it down here in Mississippi, and you better get the heck outta the way. Just sayin’.

You see, up North that word is often combined with other four-letter words, like -fall, -plow, -salt, -shoe, or five-letter words like -chains, -tires, first-, third-, all of which usually occur by sometime in November. Yep, we got 5-8 inches of the nasty stuff, and it stayed around for four or five days. Down here, we folk set off the tornado sirens when the “expert meteorologist” says there’s a possibility of “snow.” There it is! Yes, I said it. I put it in lowercase letters to reduce the effect, but it won’t matter. I’ll probably be banned from Facebook, Amazon, the church bulletin, and every local paper within a hundred miles.

 

Even the deer don't like the white stuff. I took this one in the Coldater River Bottoms.

So, anyway, the difference is in the interpretation. “Snow” in Yankee is a fairly innocuous word indicating a need for those aforementioned other four- and five-letter pre- or suffixes— -plow, -salt, -tires ‘etc. Here in the South, on the other hand, the mention of this profanity is a call for mass mobilization. The lines at the gas stations stretch out onto the highway. The propane dealers sell out within hours. There’s not a generator to be found anywhere south of the Maxon-Dixon, and the grocery store shelves—well they can only be described in biblical terms (Exodus 10:12). Yes, it resembles the locust plague.

Grocery carts are piled high with two months’ worth of milk, bread, tater chips, and Diet Coke (the inclusion of which is to off-set the inflationary effects of the aforementioned chips and bread). And should you arrive there more than five or six hours after the “expert meteorologist” mentions the S-word, you’re screwed. You’ll be met with yards of empty shelves, or at the least, lines of shoppers stretching down the aisles all the way back to the meat department and not a grocery cart in sight. And if you waited until the four-letter S-stuff began falling, bless your heart, the drive home is gonna be an adrenaline ride that makes turn-4 at Talladega look like kitty cars.

There are several rules we Southerners follow while driving in snowy or icy conditions. First: Stay very close behind the guy in front of you. Not sure why, but it seems to be common practice, so just do it. Second: If you come up on a bridge or overpass, apply your brakes vigorously. Afterall, the bridge always freezes first and you gotta creep across it, even on the interstate highway. Never mind that jack-knifing 18-wheeler behind you. That’s why they put ditches and medians on the roads. Third: Do not under any circumstances exceed ten miles per hour. Oh, and if you Yankee transplants think you’re getting’ off from this one Scott free, guess again.

Northerners learn quickly that Southerners panic and drive ten-miles-per-hour for miles on end, even on packed snow. There’s only one response. TAILGATE!! Yeah, give ‘em some NASCAR bumper love. And at the earliest opportunity pass them in the median or off the shoulder of the road and hope you don’t overlook a concrete culvert. Poor things are simply frustrated, and not without just cause when the closest thing to a snowplow in the county is a front-end loader. The problem is in the venting. It only fogs up your windshield and increases your chances of ending up in a ditch.

Oh, and did you know that a four-wheel drive vehicle can’t stop any faster than a two-wheel-drive one? This issue tends to occur in both demographic groups and is described by Ron White as something that can’t be fixed, so I’ll reserve comment. The deer pics are for my northern friends, so as to sooth their nerves and relieve their anxiety.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…if you enjoyed this little commentary, please sign-up for my mail list. Go to www.rickdestefanis.com and do it. I have had numerous friends and loyal readers tell me “I didn’t know you came out with another book.” Subscribe and you will get about one email a month, and if you’re in a bad mood, that’s why God created the delete key. I now have twelve novels published—seven in the Vietnam War series and four in my Rawlins Saga western series. Subscribe and don’t miss another book. And your update: I finished the second draft of Specter of Betrayal the sequel to The Ghost, Rumors from the Central Highlands of Vietnam. I’m still hoping to have it out in the spring.

Happy reading, and don’t forget Valentines Day.

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